John Bossange: The myth of sustainable economic growth

This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington, a retired middle school principal and a board member of Better (not bigger) Vermont.

Scientists, economists, researchers, and city and town planners are questioning the idea of “sustainable growth” as a model for development nationally and now here in Vermont. At our present rate of consumption and desire to maintain our current lifestyles, unlimited economic growth as we have been measuring it and would like to envision it, is proving to be both unaffordable and unsustainable.

The immediate challenge is the inability to pay for the impacts resulting from “sustainable growth.” Those impacts are measured by “carrying capacity.” Will our roads be able to accommodate the increased traffic? How many more signal lights with left turn lanes will be installed? How many more school renovations, classroom trailers and teachers will be needed? How many more police officers, cruisers, firefighters, engines and their equipment will be required for our safety? How many more road maintenance crews, vehicles for plowing, additional wastewater treatment stations, expanded fresh-water lines and enhanced stormwater systems, electrical substations, landfills and natural gas lines will be needed to support “sustainable growth?”

Assessing carrying capacity has always been a challenge and, in the end, expensive. Impact fees and growing the grand list never come close to covering the true “carrying costs” of economic growth and development. The eventual financial burden has always fallen to the citizens with sharp increases in our taxes and infrastructure bonds. There is no such thing as free, unlimited “sustainable growth.” Vermont’s fragile tax base cannot absorb these impact costs.

Equally important, “sustainable growth” also brings huge, measurable, negative environmental impacts to the Vermont economy, like the cost of clean water and air, noise pollution, the loss of wetlands, farmland and forest cover, increased levels of solid waste trash, sewage, phosphorus, nitrogen, pharmaceutical discharges into our surface and ground waters, overall climate crisis mitigation and non-renewable energy resource depletion. The 2018 Vermont Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) Report , funded by our legislature, offers a start in estimating the true cost of economic growth resulting from environmental degradation.

Still, despite the science and research, advocates for continued, unlimited economic growth in Vermont, led by the Vermont Futures Project, the Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Scott and some legislators, say it is sustainable. They continue to support

the myth that we can increase our population and expand the required carrying capacity without addressing our limited and diminishing resources. Their narrow-minded focus on simply attracting more employees for their companies and occupants for their buildings without critically examining the consequences is shortsighted and will be an environmental and economic disaster.

Economic growth has been a challenge in Vermont because our rural state has always been a tough place to carve out a living. Even today, cold and harsh snowy winters, six months of endless and sunless November “stick season” weather and rural isolation in a snowy mountainous terrain keep people from moving here. People have been less willing to relocate to Vermont even if there are employment opportunities or if they can work remotely from home.

Vermont’s overall population growth over the past ten years has been between 2.8 % and 3.4%, including the pandemic refugee years. And for the past two years it’s been 0.02% and 0.05%, barely any growth at all. From the year 2000 until now, almost a quarter of a century, our population only grew by 6.1%. Even with climate changes now upon us, the weather is still too harsh for many. All too often people have returned to the south to live in warmer and larger metropolitan regions.

So Vermont continues to struggle with three powerful, controlling factors: our high taxes, the enduring climate crisis and our harsh weather — all reducing the idea of unlimited “sustainable growth” to a myth. We feel the weight of our tax bills, the increased impacts of climate change on our fragile environment, and we see the impacts of sprawl now surrounding too many of our villages and city centers. We must accept the fact that more excessive growth is not better, and continual expansion is not sustainable. Even the wise practices of smart growth can still yield massive, unsustainable carrying costs with negative ecological consequences.

We need to slow down and stop the panicky conversation promoting a quick population boom and excessive growth. We’ve got plenty of Vermonters who need to be taken care of first. We also need to do a better job protecting our environment, reforming our tax structure and accepting the truth that there needs to be a sustainable balance of clear limits to economic expansion.

So far, we have not experienced the population explosions seen in other cities and states mostly to the south. This gives us a unique opportunity to plan for future growth responsibly and use the time we’ve been given wisely before it is too late. We need to first assess our finite resources and our ability to manage the impacts of all carrying costs. Absent that, sustainable economic growth will continue to be a myth.

Read the story on VTDigger here: John Bossange: The myth of sustainable economic growth .